reid as his mentor. >> nevada senator harry reid! >> reporter: reid gave ruben his start in politics, handling events in the latino community. >> a lot of community leaders here start saying, wow this guy ruben, you know, he is doing a good job for senator reid, maybe he can run for office some day. >> reporter: and that's exactly what ruben did winning a seat in the nevada state assembly when he was just 26. >> one, two, three. >> reporter: now at 31 -- >> hi, how are you? >> reporter: he has a much loftier goal. >> ruben kihuen, running for u.s. congress. >> reporter: the state's latino population has skyrocketed, up 87%, 700,000 latinos the last decade. >> how are you? you look warm. >> reporter: redistricting resulted in one district becoming heavily hispanic. [ speaking spanish ] >> constituents i have been representing the past years were calling and saying, ruben, you should run. so i met with a lot of people for many weeks, went out to washington, d.c. i met with senator reid. >> did he encourage you to run? >> senator reid i